Category Archives: Debates

Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders, is in Top 4% of Earners, and Now Owns His Third Home

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The following debate originally took place upon my Facebook wall…

Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders is a wealthy man

Democratic Socialist, Bernie Sanders is a wealthy man

Rayn: Fresh Off His Campaign to Make Socialism Great Again, Bernie Sanders Buys $600,000 Summer House:
http://ijr.com/2016/08/668817-fresh-off-his-campaign-to-make-socialism-great-again-bernie-sanders-buys-600000-summer-house/

Jason L.: He couldn’t have used campaign contributions for the house.

Leftover Campaign Funds:
http://www.factcheck.org/2008/02/leftover-campaign-funds/

Rayn: Glad to hear it. Of course, I hope you realize that I didn’t think he had, and neither did the author of this news article. I didn’t think he’d even need to, as I’m fully aware that Sanders and his wife do very well for themselves… I’ve even posted about their financial status on my FB wall, previously…

How Bernie Sanders, the Socialist, Quietly Entered the Top 4% of Earners:
http://fortune.com/2016/02/28/bernie-sanders-socialist-finances/

I’ve also shared information about the real-estate/severance-pay scandal that his wife was embroiled in while employed at Burlington college…

Bernie Sanders Parachutes Way out of a Response to Golden Parachutes Ad:
http://watchdog.org/171343/bernie-golden-parachutes-ad/

Debunking Falsehoods About the Homeless

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The following debate originally took place on my Facebook wall, upon my post, “Another Perfect Example of the State Using Public Tax Dollars to ‘Take Care’ of the Homeless“…

Rayn: Is this that “compassion for the poor” y’all imagined your tax dollars pay for? Suckers!

It’s just like those helpful “vagrancy” laws, used by the State to harass, fine and imprison the homeless.

"Without goverment, who will build the spikes where homeless people sleep?"

“Without government, who will build the spikes where homeless people sleep?”

Jonas A.: 😡

Lutz S.: Nastural selection. If you end up homeless, you 90% are either a drunk, junkie, or mentally disordered.

Lutz S.: Those genes need to go tf away

Rayn: Unsubstantiated, accusatory, and patently false…

“Nearly one-quarter of all homeless people (23 percent or 138,149) were homeless children under the age of 18, and 30 percent of sheltered homeless people were children.”

The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress:
https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf

For three and a half years, my family and I were homeless, living in the NYC shelter system nightmare. I was twelve when we entered, and fifteen when we finally escaped.

Jesus G.: without government who will be able to read/watch Superman cartoons! Spider-man anyone? 😮

Adding Some Clarity to the Misleading Claim that “All Food is Genetically Modified”

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The following debate originally took place here, upon the Facebook page, “FEE“…

(replies from all third parties have been omitted for clarity)

2016-08-04-adding-some-clarity-to-the-misleading-claim-that-all-food-is-genetically-modified

FEE: All Food Is Genetically Modified. Now We’re Just Better at It.
https://fee.org/articles/all-food-is-genetically-modified-now-were-just-doing-it-better/

Rayn: LOL! Sure! We’ve been splicing plant genes with that of bacteria and insects since the dawn of humanity! *facepalm*

Scott S.: Nature has been. It’s called horizontal gene transfer- take a biology course.

Rayn: LOL. Thanks for the condescending “advice,” but I majored in biology at Stonybrook University. Before that, I went to Clara Barton High School for Health Professions, where I scored a 92 on the Biology Regents Test – the highest in my entire school.

Horizontal gene transfer is a nature-guided process of evolutionary adaptation, most common to *single-celled organisms*. It typically involves the transfer of only a tiny fractions of genetic material at a time while single-celled organisms interact with their environment. This process isn’t even REMOTELY similar to *human-directed* gene-splicing of *large sections* of *highly complex organisms,* such as plants, with the DNA of other *highly complex organisms,* such as insects, nor even with single-celled soil bacteria.

Jamie M.: They used chemicals and radiation instead.

Successfully Peaceful and Prosperous Anarchy Has Existed All Throughout the Humanity’s History

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The following debate originally took place upon my Facebook wall, after I shared artwork posted to the page, “Anarchist Memes” by a fan…

Rayn:

"What people think Anarchy is What Anarchy really is"

“What people think Anarchy is
What Anarchy really is”

Murilo M.: I like your posts Rayn, but this is one I have to disagree with. How can you be sure? Have you ever seen a country in which anarchy worked well?

Rayn: “I am often asked if anarchy has ever existed in our world, to which I answer: almost all of your daily behavior is an anarchistic expression. How you deal with your neighbors, coworkers, fellow customers in shopping malls or grocery stores, is often determined by subtle processes of negotiation and cooperation. Social pressures, unrelated to statutory enactments, influence our behavior on crowded freeways or grocery checkout lines. If we dealt with our colleagues at work in the same coercive and threatening manner by which the state insists on dealing with us, our employment would be immediately terminated. We would soon be without friends were we to demand that they adhere to specific behavioral standards that we had mandated for their lives.

Should you come over to our home for a visit, you will not be taxed, searched, required to show a passport or driver’s license, fined, jailed, threatened, handcuffed, or prohibited from leaving. I suspect that your relationships with your friends are conducted on the same basis of mutual respect. In short, virtually all of our dealings with friends and strangers alike are grounded in practices that are peaceful, voluntary, and devoid of coercion.” – Butler Shaffer

Rayn:  “Until shortly before the common era, the very last 1 percent of human history, the social landscape consisted of elementary self-governing kinship units that might, occasionally, cooperate in hunting, feasting, skirmishing, trading, and peacemaking. It did not contain anything one could call a state. In other words, living in the absence of state structures has been the standard human condition.” – Yale professor, James C. Scott

Has Anarchy Ever Existed Before?
https://theruleoffreedom.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/has-anarchy-existed-before/
(Click Here to Continue Reading This Post) →

Clarifying a Meme About the GOP Sabotaging Presidential Candidate, Dr. Ron Paul, in 2012

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The following debate originally took place upon my Facebook wall, after I posted a meme being shared by an acquainted from here…

Rayn:

"Yeah, if somebody could leak GOP emails from 2012 to show that they are also corrupt enough to rig elections... That'd be great"

“Yeah, if somebody could leak GOP
emails from 2012 to show that they
are also corrupt enough to rig elections…
That’d be great”

Daniel Sv.: That’s a bit of a mis characterization. If there were any emails leaked, you would probably see that the RNC establishment was going out of their way to sabotage Trump. They desperately wanted some establishment candidate, even Ted Cruz (who is part of the establishment, though heavily disliked for his arrogant and brusque style). Remember how they attempted to cancel the Colorado primary and award the delegates to Cruz? The reason why Trump won is that the establishment was fundamentally bankrupt. People were tired of the establishment candidates pandering to topics that had nothing to do with them (abortion, endless wars, fundamentalist Christianity, etc) while signaling tepid support for maintaining the middle class, then when getting elected to chuck those by the wayside and pocket money from Goldman Sachs while continuing on unnecessary wars. People see that the establishment is scared of an outsider candidate like Trump and it’s making them mad with glee.

Rayn: Hmm… I’m not sure if you realize, but this meme actually refers to the RNC rigging of their own primary elections through the systematic disenfranchisement of presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul in (both 2008 and) 2012.